Man with good memory can't recall details

Frank Kim's denials that he paid nine girls aged 12 to 16 for sex were met with profound skepticism by a prosecutor yesterday.

The 25-year-old scion of a wealthy South Korean family repeatedly said he couldn't recall key elements of allegations in the Crown's 31-count indictment against him.

Then, after strenuously denying he had sex with a girl who was 13, he assured B.C. Supreme Court Justice Janice Dillon and the jury of the reliability of his evidence because he had "a pretty good memory."

That brought smiles to the faces of a few of the jurors, who have endured nine weeks of jury duty.

Kim said the complainants with whom he admitting to having sex did so without the inducement of cash or drugs.

"You never had to pay any of them?" Crown counsel Sandra Cunningham asked incredulously.

"That would be a fair way to say that," replied Kim.

"They just wanted to have sex with you?" Cunningham asked the pudgy defendant.

"Yes," he replied angrily.

Kim was shown pictures of the complainants taken around the times of the alleged offences in 1997.

In each case, he said the girl looked to be 18 or 19. When he asked for proof of age, they produced "B.C. ID photo cards," said Kim.

In another exchange, Kim said his father, who was visiting Canada, told him to out of his Richmond townhouse after Kim videotaped a naked girl, whom he said he believed was 18 or 19.

"You told her you would pay her $100 for sex. She told you she was 13. You paid her $80. After you videotaped her, you wanted to have sex with her," suggested Cunningham.

"I disagree," he said.

"You threatened you would hurt her if she didn't have sex with you," said Cunningham.